History, Natural History & the Arts
In the early morning hours of July 4, 1919, a fire alarm was sounded in the village of Corinth, Saratoga County. Many residents thought some kids were celebrating Independence Day a bit early, but when the International Paper Mill fire whistle sounded everyone knew it was real.
The popular German-American Club next to a creek on lower Pine Street was ablaze. [Read more…] about Corinth’s 1919 German–American Club Fire
Eleanor Charwat’s short book Prohibition in the Hudson Valley, Along the Bootleg Trail (self published, 2017) looks back at the prominent role the Hudson Valley played in bootlegging during the Prohibition Era.
Local producers, distributors and sellers of illegal liquor were overshadowed and sometimes terrorized by New York City gangsters like Dutch Schultz, Legs Diamond and Salvatore Maranzano who came to the Hudson Valley to make money and escape federal surveillance. [Read more…] about A Short Book On Prohibition in the Hudson Valley
Let us raise a glass to beer, the drink that has fueled America since its beginnings. Beer was such a popular drink that most cities during parts of the nineteenth century there were almost as many breweries as houses of worship.
One source lists 34 breweries in Troy at one point. Some only lasted a couple of years, while others endured, even beyond Prohibition. One of the oldest and largest of Troy’s breweries was the Fitzgerald Brewery. [Read more…] about The Fitzgerald Brewery: A Short History
The Clinton County Historical Association has been awarded $7,500 in Grant Funding from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership for an exhibit and public presentation on the story of the Prohibition Era in the North Country. [Read more…] about Prohibition In North Country Project Supported With Grant
Frances Perkins, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in all four terms of his administration, is often credited with designing many of the New Deal’s social welfare programs, including Social Security. As such, she ranks among the most influential women of the 20th Century.
Few however, know that Perkins began her career in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city of New York, work that as inspired inn part by a chance meeting an Irish Tammany Hall District Leader Tom McManus. [Read more…] about Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized
Oh what pun it is to chuckle over Prohibition one-liners published in 1920 issues of The Post-Star, a daily newspaper of Glens Falls, NY. [Read more…] about Prohibition One-Liners From 1920
The Ticonderoga Historical Society is set to present “Our Best Endeavors: Temperance and Prohibition in the Champlain Valley,” a presentation by Susan Evans McClure, Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, on Friday, September 11 at 6 pm. [Read more…] about Prohibition Program In Ticonderoga Sept 11th
The Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership (CVNHP) and Lake Champlain Basin Program awarded more than $200,000 in grants to organizations in Vermont, New York and Québec for projects that promote and protect the region’s history in 2020 and 2021.
Smuggling, bootlegging, and moonshining are among the stories of the Champlain Valley’s past that will be highlighted. [Read more…] about New Projects to Preserve, Celebrate Champlain Valley Heritage
During Prohibition the social life of so many Americans was made criminal overnight. Here’s a little nugget from the July 2, 1931 Ticonderoga Sentinel.
One wonders if the men arrested here ever served any hard time. I suspect they did. [Read more…] about July 1931: Prohibition Agents Seize A Still Near Lake George
This week on The Historians Podcast, Richard Hamm discusses what really happened during Prohibition. Hamm is co-editor of Prohibition’s Greatest Myths: The Distilled Truth About America’s Anti-Alcohol Crusade (LSU Press, 2020). [Read more…] about Distilled Truth About Prohibition (Podcast)